


adumbration

by experiment



Category: Parahumans Series - Wildbow
Genre: F/M, and how cape stuff changes things, probably a one shot, relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-06
Updated: 2018-06-06
Packaged: 2019-05-18 20:44:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14859984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/experiment/pseuds/experiment
Summary: Being a cape changes things, complicates them; makes it so you feel like the world is crashing down on your shoulders, but you can’t take the name Atlas, because you know it’s gonna crush you right down.one-shot





	adumbration

“So, what was it you wanted to talk to me about?” she asked with a smile. They had just gotten to the point where they had to part ways to make it home, and I slowed to a stop. The grass growing up from the sidewalk was quite beautiful, wasn’t it? She looked at me with concern, her formerly humorous mood dissipating.

My own demeanor wasn’t much better. I took a breath, let it out.

“I just- I thought you ought to know. I know I should have told you earlier, but it never quite seemed like the right time. I’m a cape.”

There. I said it. It was out in the open, now, no more hiding behind excuses.

“I’ve been one for about six months, maybe a bit more. I don’t know. I wasn’t counting. Didn’t feel the need.”

She was looking at me now. Like she’s never seen me before, like I was a monster in the place of her boyfriend of two and a half years.

“I don’t- I don’t quite know why I didn’t tell you. It didn’t seem... I don’t know.” I cut myself off. I didn’t really know what I was going to end it with, what I could end it with. Funny. I didn’t know a lot of things anymore.

I’d seen a lot during my stint as a vigilante in Brockton Bay. More than I’d ever wanted to have seen. Some people were doing good, others bad, others in a grey area. Most, though, just trying to live or survive the best they could. Sometimes I didn’t know whether I could or should step in; whether it would help at all, in the end. The line between villains and heroes wasn’t so thick in the bay, after all, and that childhood of heroes had come crashing down pretty damn quick.

He didn’t quote know how to communicate these thoughts to her, if he even should. Instead, he changed the subject. The silence had dragged on for too long.

“Just- here’s what I can do.”

The grass and weeds on the street started to spread before I stopped it and returned it back to its original state.

She looked down.

“So you’re Ent.” She choked on a hiccuping laugh. “You always were a lord of the rings nerd.”

I nodded once. Once again, I didn’t know what to say. I couldn’t take my words back, say that it was all a joke, because it wasn’t. It was real, and while sometimes it didn’t really feel that way, right now the world felt like it was crushing down on my shoulders. I could’ve named myself Atlas with the way I felt right now, except I wasn’t nearly strong enough to begin to carry the weight. 

“So,” I said. 

“So,” she repeated back to me. 

“So, just, look,” she says quietly. “I don’t know what I’m feeling right now. I’m scared, a little, and I’m angry at you too for keeping this from me for so long. There are a hundred thousand different thoughts conflicting, colliding, and I can’t say which one is going to win out. Or if one is going to win out.”

She let the silence settle, for a moment, while I looked at her and she looked at me. She took a breath.

“I can’t say what I’m going to decide to do right now, right here. I need time to think. This isn’t a yes or a no; it’s a postponement. Ask me by tomorrow and I’ll have an answer, but I don’t have one for you right now.

I hope you understand.”

I took a breath, as if I was about to say something, anything, but I closed my mouth. What could I say in response to that? Instead, I nodded my head once. 

She gave me a small smile and walked away.

I watched her until she turned around the corner, and then started walking over to the bus stop. I already knew what her answer was going to be.


End file.
